Is it possible to make a primitive bow using the lumber from a Lowes/Home depot store? What are the downsides?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “drawknife home depot“
About Clara
Written by: Clara
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Is it possible to make a primitive bow using the lumber from a Lowes/Home depot store? What are the downsides?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “drawknife home depot“
About Clara
Yes.
I made my first couple of bows out of red oak boards which I picked up from Lowes and Home Depot, using Sam Harper’s guide: How to make a red oak board bow — the disadvantage is red oak isn’t a terribly great bow wood, so the design needs to be adapted somewhat. The compelling advantage is it’s inexpensive/affordable, so if (when) one breaks one’s first few bows the financial pain isn’t too bad.
Since then I’ve shifted to using hickory and pecan (not usually available at Lowes or Home Depot unfortunately) and am currently working on some bows using Ipê — this is often available as deck-building material. There are a number of public domain books which touch on bow building at The Archery Library — one of my favourites is The Flat Bow .
If you’re going to build a lot of bows, you owe it to yourself to get The Traditional Bowyer’s Bible Vols. 1–4 and reference materials such as Traditional Archery from Six Continents: The Charles E. Grayson Collection .
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Go with what W.F.Adams said about red oak board bows first – but there’s a way to get really good ash for selfbows: Find a pair of straight grain ash sledge handles, study the grain, then make yourself a bow from a pair of those, using Gorilla Glue and a bit of care to glue your two half staves into a very functional bow.
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